CHAPTER 32
The Mark 3s, save Chloe, Juliet, and Rosa, continued ascending up the stairwell with most of the overridden Liberators and Custodians. Nick and the others went back down the way he came. Despite Meta’s plaintive look, he relied on his own two feet. They were only going down six floors, after all.
“You can explain in detail why you think Lieu is the culprit later,” Rie said. “The Host considers him to only have a 39% probability—”
“An 84.6% probability,” Meta corrected.
“You don’t get to cheat and revise your theory after Nick says who the culprit is,” Rie said snippily. “The Host considered him far less likely. Even Detective Hammond was more likely. While Commissioner Kim had a greater than 90% chance with the most recent evidence.”
Despite Rie’s earlier statement, Nick felt that he needed to explain right now. They had enough time for him to do so, and he doubted Lieu was going anywhere. The Archangels were swarming the Spire, and no doubt the military was doing the same. It would be impossible to get Helena out with Kushiel outside the evidence vault.
Which left Nick curious as to what Lieu hoped to achieve with this lockdown. Had it been a pure desperation tactic? The Archangels had missed him during their sweep using the cameras. Maybe he thought he could slip out while they were busy with Kim.
For now, it was time to explain.
“Lieu’s apparently a Cipher. But he’s not in any Cipher circles I know. If somebody is going to take your nicknames seriously, it would be someone who isn’t part of the community,” Nick said. “And he spread that to the NLF. They seemed to expect something from me, based on the fact I was the ‘Wraith.’ And Kim said that Lieu was the only person to back me when you wanted to hire me.”
Rie remained silent, but she nodded for him to continue.
“The mercs panicked right after the NLF raid. Lieu was the one who stretched the Archangels thin, not Kim, and that likely made it easier for the mercs and him.” Then he frowned. “He was also the one who deployed the Custodians inside the department.”
“When would he find the time or expertise to pull all this off?” Rie asked. “That is why we have discounted him. Much of what the culprit has done requires considerable talent or connections.”
“Tell me, have you ever met the Ciphers that Lieu claims to work with?” He raised an eyebrow and stopped on the stairwell. “He said that he usually does the rounds with new hires. But what new hires? Hammond indicated that the Archangels are taking everyone’s jobs.”
Rie looked at Chloe, who looked at Meta. She shook her head.
“The Host has presumed such Ciphers were communicated to off-network or did not exist. Captain Lieu is known to lie in his performance reports.”
“Yeah. Hammond says he’s a snake. Kim says he’s a man justifying his career. But that just means he’s a great actor. Dallas even said as much about the culprit, and I trust his judgment a lot more than Travis’s.” Nick sighed. “The biggest piece of evidence was right in front of us: his predecessor. Lieu conducted an investigation into a crime with no witnesses and no evidence. Does the report even exist?”
“It does. Chief Andrews was innocent of the murder. The previous captain attempted to assault her using a hacked Liberator…” Rie trailed off. “You believe Lieu killed his predecessor.”
“Obviously. Our culprit has pulled all this off without being noticed, and even snuck Helena’s physical unit into evidence storage. By comparison, it would be trivial for Lieu to hack a Liberator, kill his predecessor, cover it up, and use the suspicion toward Andrews as his own cover story. And look at where we are now: the culprit has overridden the police mainframes, probably military warbots, and has erased evidence. The behavior matches.”
He leveled his gaze at Rie. “It’s Lieu.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I, uh, don’t know.” He shrugged when she glared at him. “Travis is the only person who ascribed a motive, and he’s unreliable. Maybe Lieu just wants a comfortable retirement and thinks he can sell Helena to somebody?”
“And he’ll purchase a ticket to a space elevator?” Rie asked, a hand on her hip. “How would Lieu cover up Lu Export Import?”
“He didn’t. The Spires did. Kim didn’t seem surprised that his brother’s money was connected to this whole shitshow, which means they may have spotted the fraud and chosen to ignore it. After all, it would be embarrassing. His family can eat that money, but he’s politically ambitious. The loss of face is more damaging.”
“The truth eventually came out?”
“Did it? How many people saw the story about the RTM factories, during a day with the Aesir announcement and the mercs attacking Archangels in public? He’s the commissioner. He knew that if the fraud was outed by the police, he’d be able to spin it.”
Nick realized he was getting distracted. They had arrived at the right floor. Lieu’s office was supposedly just a short walk away.
Rather than blow the door open, Rie and the Mark 3s overrode it. Nick didn’t ask how. There was no heavy security door here.
There were dozens of Liberators and Custodians, however. Gunfire erupted the moment they tried to enter the floor.
A railgun shell slammed into the far concrete wall. Meta shoved Nick into a wall, out-of-sight of the hallway. The rest vanished through the doorway, and she followed them.
He waited, hand on his gun. The roars of railguns, clunk-clunk-clunk of the automatic shotguns, and booms of the Liberator hand cannons assailed his ears. Every second felt like an eternity.
But no matter how much bravado he might conjure, he wasn’t stepping into that firefight. His gun might take out a Liberator, but even his anti-armor rounds would bounce off the Custodians. This was a handgun, not a railgun or a full-powered shotgun.
By contrast, a single shot from any of the police dolls would turn him into chunky salsa. And they wouldn’t miss. The Archangels had far superior accuracy, but in an area this small it wouldn’t matter. Nick was a big target, and their guns would vaporize him.
So he waited.
After a minute, Chloe re-entered the stairwell. She was missing an arm, and countless scrapes covered her chassis.
“The floor is clear. Preliminary scan has detected Captain Lieu inside his office. Rie wishes for you to confront him with her,” Chloe said.
Nick placed his hands on her shoulders. “I take it you’re getting a new unit after this.”
She frowned. “I would prefer repairs. With the investigation finished, it is not a high priority to be deployed and I… have grown attached to this unit.” She licked her lips. “Is that alright?”
“It’s your body. You get to choose.”
“Thank you,” she said, then gripped his hand with her remaining one and led him into the carnage.
None of the other Archangels had been destroyed. Meta had managed to avoid sustaining any serious damage. Juliet and Rosa both had chunks missing, but had kept all of their limbs. Rie seemed unharmed, which amazed Nick.
She stood outside an office. The windows were black, and the door was shut. This was presumably Lieu’s office, but there was no signage visible. It was probably in the Altnet.
“Is your armor harder than theirs?” he asked her.
“No, but I have other protection systems.” She smiled and placed a hand over her chest.
“I thought you said that was an enlarged battery.”
“And I can do some very interesting things with my enlarged battery.”
Nick didn’t probe too deeply. There was a reason that the prototype specifications remained secret, he supposed. They might have hardware in them that the production units didn’t have access to.
“Shall we?” Rie asked, her hand on the office door.
He nodded and then stepped inside.
Captain Lieu stood over his desk, an array of ancient physical electronics in front of him.